About

 

Are you in search of the ‘wisdom’ of the ancients, but don’t know where to begin? Are you looking for more than the locus classicus--do you long for the odd and the obscure as well?

Then you’ve come to the right place! Through this blog, and the accompanying Twitter feed (@sentantiq), we aim to bring you some of the most famous (and also most confounding) quotations from the ancient world. In addition, we also take pleasure in shining lights on some of the forgotten shelves and corners of classical heritage. You’ll find tidbits from the Archaic Age in Greece all the way through imperial Rome and up through the fall of Byzantium. By Jove, if there is something somewhat classically oriented later than that, you might find it too.

In the real world, we are teachers and compulsive readers. At times, we even dabble in some forms of scholarship as well (longer translations, commentaries etc.). So Sententiae Antiquae is something of a digital commonplace book, replicating all the delights and horrors of ancient authors like Aulus Gellius, Aelian, Macrobius and Philostratus. We are not saying we are anywhere near as good as these guys. But we do quote from them from time to time…

Please feel free to comment, question, share your own favorite quotations! We are always willing to widen the circle with additional correspondents, so feel free to email Erik Robinson (palaiophron@gmail.com) or Joel Christensen (joel@brandeis.edu).

We are always rethinking, expanding, or trashing our mission. Currently, we have two mottoes, one Greek, one Latin:

ΕΥΔΟΞΑ ΑΓΝΩΣΤΑ ΚΑΤΑΓΕΛΑΣΤΑ

GAUDIUM IN PRAECLARIS RISUS IN DETERRIMIS

For now, this says it all.

We have collected 10 years of our common tweets in the SA Facebook, available to download for free.

Sometimes we write blogs elsewhere. and in other places. Sometimes the translations on this page make the leap to the real world: on the stage or the printed page.

On some occasions, we end up in the news: The Hindu, BrandeisNow, The Daily Beast, Prospect Magazine, The Conversation, The New York Times linked to us once….even NPR got in the game along with NH Public Radio and Arnie Arneson (more than once), and WORT’s 8 O’Clock Buzz.

Scott Lepisto once put Joel on the Itinera podcast.  Ok, he did it twice. See also an appearance in Ancient Rome Refocused to talk about frogs and mice and on the Archive of Performances of Greek and Roman Drama podcast to talk about Reading Greek Tragedy Online. (And we are on A Bit Lit

too!) See also this conversation in Kallion’s “Leading Thinkers” podcast, or these appearances to talk about The Many Minded Man with Cornell’s 1869 Podcast or Metalearn or this interview about Achilles on Ithaca Bound.

Interested in O Brother Where Art Thou? We talked about that with Movies We Dig!

 

33 thoughts on “About”

  1. Just wanted to let you know that I love your blog. I’ve told everyone I know to check in on it.

    Reply

  3. Hello, admin., Sententiae Antiquae. Sorry I forgot your name. We at Linear B, Knossos & Mycenae, are now partners with Koryvantes, the Association of Historical Research (Athens) and the Institute of Archaeology (Belgrade), publishers of the annual Archaeology and Science,

    https://linearbknossosmycenae.wordpress.com/2016/06/01/the-institute-of-archaeology-belgrade-publishers-of-archaeology-and-science-belgrade-issn-1452-7448-is-our-latest-link-to-a-partner-site/

    PS I was just published in Vol. 10 (2014), published in April 2016, here:

    https://www.academia.edu/23643380/Archaeology_and_Science_Vol._10_2014_An_Archaeologists_Translation_of_Pylos_Tablet_641-1952._pp._133-161

    and we would very much like to partner with your extremely important site. Please sen me a private e-mail to vallance22@zoho.com with your return e-mail address, if you are interested.

    Thank you

    Richard Vallance Janke

    Reply
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  11. Hey, I am a Greek-Turk, who is trying to explore the wisdom of ancients that lived on our lands. I just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate your blog. Please keep going!

    Reply

      1. Greek,
        What a hateful and chauvinistic response to Entropia.
        People like you will forever remain mired in their hopeless, Balkan blood-and-soil worldview.

  15. Hey there! I enjoy reading your blog. I’ve been meaning to know your opinion on something I’ve seen some classicists comment on. At the risk of putting you in an awkward position, what is your opinion on people today trying to revive Ancient Greek religion? Some classicists have gone as far as saying that the Greek Gods belong to the field of Classics and could never be truly be worshipped ever again. I have my own thoughts but I would love to hear yours. Thank you for your time

    Reply

  17. μητρὸς καὶ θυγατρὸς παιδός τ’ ἔτι τύμβος ὅδ̣’ εἰμί,
    οἳ λάχον ὠκίστην ἀτραπὸν εἰς Ἀΐδην.
    Have you considered the possibility that this is the tomb of three people: the mother, and ( καὶ ) the daughter and ( τ’ ) the son.Then the third couplet makes sense and the fourth couplet says “and though she had two children, she has triple sorrows. Now the husband (γαμέτης) and father (γενέτη̣[ς]) weeps uncontrollably (ἄμμιγα)”

    Reply

      1. Actually I’d like to amend my translation of the last couplet. “She had (just) two children, but now the husband and father bewails his threefold sorrow. ” The advantage to my mind is that all the nouns and adverbs in the last line have their usual meanings.

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